Topic: Sony PCM-M10 audio recorder - NEW

[H₂O]

That's really incredible... a pair of batteries may be enough to do a weekend festival. 

The manual says it can record for 22 hours or so on one set of AA batteries at 24/96.

[Artstar]

You can still change the auto/manual , mic sensitivity, and record level with the hold on.

Ah, I see now! It's not a button. It's a latching slide switch. In which case, if it's anything like the slide switches on my D50, then it'll be no threat in its leather case if somebody ever makes one for it. I saw Sony's idea of a carrying case for it and it's a friggin' box rather than a leather case with a belt clip like my D50's case. Disappointing!

[dogmusic]

then it'll be no threat in its leather case if somebody ever makes one for it. I saw Sony's idea of a carrying case for it and it's a friggin' box rather than a leather case with a belt clip like my D50's case. Disappointing!

I found a case that fits the M10 like a glove, and it's cheap.

It's a Kodak (model 123-0671) found at my local Canadian Tire store ($9.99), and it's also on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Slim-select-digital-cameras/dp/B0013HY3Q6/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1255126661&sr=1-18

See pics of it earlier in this thread at Reply #110 on the page linked here:

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=124639.105

[mloewen]

 I have two cases for my M 10. A Lowepro I got at Best Buy that I had for a camera . It has places to store batteries and a memory card adapter.My other one I found at Dollar Tree it stretches to fit perfectly with the top sides cut out so the mics are not covered. The second one fits into the first one snug.

[gmm6797]

I have gaffers tape over all 3 of the external switches, as they all can be changed while the deck is running.

The volume will also turn while in use, but that is a good thing.

On my R09hr, never had once of the 5 switches move on me in "hat" mode, and I ran that puppy for some 16 months and probably 100+ shows

[labello]

good review of the M10

http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/sony-pcm-m10-review.html

[Artstar]

I found a case that fits the M10 like a glove, and it's cheap.

It's a Kodak (model 123-0671) found at my local Canadian Tire store ($9.99), and it's also on Amazon:

Very nice and thank you for the info. I just had a brainwave when I saw your photos though. It seems the unit is no bigger than my old MZ-R50 MD unit. In which case, I still have my leather cases from Servired which I could still use with this beast perhaps! If they don't work out, I'll definitely take the Kodak option. Thanks again man.

[tekdroid]

The manual is available under the Resources tab on this page, for those who haven't downloaded it yet:
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-PCMM10/B/

So far no one has mentioned:

Track Mark and Divide - two different things
What I love about this unit, after reading the manual (which is of a very high standard; I'm a big fan of Sony excellent manuals which they always put a lot of effort in) is the fact that Track Mark is a separate feature to Divide. Previously (PCM-D50) you had to Divide to easily get to a point you wanted to get to, which means the file was physically split in two, each division getting a different suffix added to its name. No way around it. But now you can Track Mark and only optionally Divide tracks (if you want to). Track Marks can also be deleted easily (again without physical changes to the WAV file). The only downside I see is that Track Marks can only be located in STOP mode, not while playing back. I'm guessing PLAY would skip between actual files as usual.

Anyway, great!

You can also PROTECT tracks. (Page 64)
So even when you delete a whole folder worth of rubbish, the Protected track(s) won't be deleted. Nice time-saver and an easy way to free up memory if you needed some in a hurry. Better usability is always welcome.

Adding a TAKE or KEEP to a file name also sounds like a nicer way to manage content! (Page 62)

Playback Modes
PCM-D50 had A-B Repeat and Repeat 1 (to play a track repeatedly). That's it. The PCM-M10 offers far more Playback Modes (Page 51 and 52). Nice to see more effort being put into this.

Key Control sounds interesting. Anyone tried it? Thoughts?

I also like the fact that if the unit is dropped, the battery cover may become detached, rather than deformed / damaged presumably. (Page 12). I also like that the NiMH batteries can be selected in-menu for more accurate battery life measurements.

All this means is I will get an early Christmas present.

The only niggling worry is talk of MicroSD cards not being recognised. According to the manual (and I hate to state the obvious), the cards have to be inserted as shown on Page 36. But more tellingly it also states on that page:
-------------
• If a memory card is not recognized, remove
it and then insert it into the PCM recorder
again.
-------------
Which suggests to me that they are aware of this being a possibility. Maybe a necessary compromise to have both types of cards work in the same slot? Which is a shame, because who wants Memory Stick Micro over MicroSD. Perhaps there are Sony loyalists out there with a stack of M2 cards that need to be re-purposed!

 

[su6oxone]

good review of the M10

http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/sony-pcm-m10-review.html

The battery life of the PCM-M10 is truly amazing, beyond outstanding. It lasted 43 hours (that's right, 43 hours) during our battery life test.

 

[tekdroid]

That battery life test isn't really what I want to see.
* They recorded in 128K MP3 on the PCM-M10 (supposedly to avoid them replacing a card with another one). I would have put a second card in and continued recording a second time, giving a total recording time. After all, the recorder stops after recording, so even if you are sleeping you will know it recorded for the length of the time on one card and shut itself off.
* The PCM-D50 and PCM-D1 units (that can't record MP3), they used 16bit/22.05KHz settings (presumably to more closely match the data rate of MP3). But possibly one of the most rarely-used settings on a recorder like this, if we are being realistic.
* They used disposable batteries.

Hardly realistic for most people living in 2009.

I would prefer a far more realistic scenario:
* 24bit / 96KHz, perhaps standard 16bit/44.1 and other standard quality settings
* 2000mAh+ NiMH rechargeables.
* Monitoring with headphones and without (mentioning any specifics like volume level and headphone make/model here).

I think comparing the manuals of the PCM-D50 and PCM-M10 gives a good guide of the improvement in battery life over the PCM-D50 (which was excellent itself). So that's great to see. Maybe taking out the optical circuitry, slightly reducing the power of the headphone amp, change of mics and general focus on power consumption with its smaller 2-battery design really brought the best out of the engineers.

Sony states 37 hour battery life recording MP3 at 128k using their own rechargeable batteries, with no monitoring "...using methods proprietary to Sony."  Heh..

More realistic quality settings with monitoring makes the battery life drop to a mere EXCELLENT
(but using the Limiter, Low-Cut Filter plus monitoring at the same time will all probably bring that down some, too)

[flintstone]

"That battery life test isn't really what I want to see. "

So buy 16 recorders and do your own comparison test 

The Wingfield Audio battery test is a real contribution.  These are the only published results I can find that compare battery life of most all of the pocket-size audio recorders under controlled conditions.  This produces an accurate picture of how the recorders compare to each other in battery power consumption. 

Flintstone

[flintstone]

"the noise floor of the M10 line input is approximately -92 dBu(A)"

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists/message/38976

[illconditioned]

Re: battery life.

I just left my recorder in pause-record mode for 12hrs and it went down one half bar (at most).  Incredible.

  Richard

[Ozpeter]

It's as well that this model is not available in Australia as I'm seriously tempted, despite the fact that these days I'm doing very little recording. 

Having followed the Minidisc road from the very first portable model to the last (fortunately for my bank balance I didn't buy every model in between, only some) this seems to be the natural successor to that sadly-ended product line.

[JM Charcot]

Is it possible to upgrade the firmware (like on the R09..) or is it blocked like on the D50?

JM.